The Mountain Journal
The Agriculture Food Authority (AFA) is working on measures to flush out rogue players within the avocado value chain, blamed for sabotaging the multi-billion shillings industry.
The authority leadership has ordered the registration of pack house operators, eying to revoke the licenses of those found engaging in malpractices.
In a high-profile meeting in Nairobi on Tuesday, that brought together exporters and pack house operators, AFA Chairman Mr Cornelly Serem said the government was keen on streamiling the avocado value chain through registration of the critical players and cancellation of some licenses of those implicated in malpractices.
The harvesting season opens on March 1, with the dealers warned against compromising the standard of the avocado destined for the export market.
Backed by Horticulture Crop Directorate (HCD) Acting Director Ms Christine Chesaro, Serem said last year the industry earned growers Sh19.5 billion an increase from Sh10.6 billion in 2019 thus the need to embark on safety standards.
“We have to protect the image of the country through registration of the pack house dealers for easy traceability of the product if something goes wrong. The authority has the details of the exporters and the majority are supportive of the industry,” said Serem.
They regretted intercepting of immature avocados along the Kenya-Tanzania border which led to the arrest of traders and impounding of their vehicles in December last year during the closure of the harvesting.
“ Also we unmasked some traders mixing mangoes with avocados that were intercepted in Dubai in December,” disclosed the chairman during the meeting with the industry players.
The chairman of the Avocado Exporters Association of Kenya Samson Mureithi said there was the need for a regulator to help deal with some buyers who fail to pay their suppliers.
Mureithi added that there need for the fraudsters once proven to be blocked from continued getting the supply of the commodity from Kenya.
“There are those who after defrauding the Kenya traders, keep on changing the names of their companies to continue trading,” said the exporters’ chairman.
Ms Chesaro on her part said the authority has engaged additional inspectors to make impromptu inspections in the pack houses, to maintain quality for the export market.
“ The Kenya fruit is precious and we shall not allow anybody to sabotage the market through manipulating the dry matter which must be at 24,” said Chesaro.
On the crises at the Red Sea, owing to the Israel and Palestine conflict, the exporters said they were incurring heavy losses as their consignment was using the longer Cape of Good Hope direction to access the destinations in the US, Denmark, and other markets.
They regretted that the ship used to take 25 days to take the avocado containers to the market, and due to the raging conflict, it has increased to more than 45 days.
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